La Catrina — that Mexican skull we’ve all seen so many times — creeps closer and closer. Silent and atrocious, she pursues Aurelio Casillas (Mexican star Rafael Amaya), chasing his thoughts minute after minute, hour after hour. Death lurks in the fourth season of Telemundo’s dramatic telenovela, El Señor de los Cielos (The Lord of the Skies), which returned Monday, March 28, and airs Monday through Friday at 10 p.m.

The telenovela, which airs on the U.S. Spanish-language network as well as in Latin America and Mexico, tells the story of a prominent Mexican drug lord.

Comcast NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo reaches more than 22 million Spanish-language viewers aged 18-49 in the United States. The company’s international division, Telemundo Internacional, broadcasts to more than 100 countries in over 35 languages.

El Señor de los Cielos is part of what Telemundo is a calling a “super series,” which María Aleandra Rodríguez, senior marketing director, describes as a new genre that “breaks away from the typical soap opera.”

The series features fewer episodes that are higher quality and divided into seasons, much like the premium dramas that are doing so well in the United States right now.

”Telemundo is doing something revolutionary here,” says Rodridguez. This genre is a “good opportunity to engage millennials.”

The current campaign continues a concept begun in season three.

“At Telemundo, we are redefining and evolving what we do at marketing level,” says Rodríguez. “Starting in the third season, we have decided to experiment a little more,” benefiting from the advantage of having loyal viewers.

“We wanted to connect with an audience who was watching other general market programs and who associated Telemundo with specific programming, so that they realize that new things are being created here,” she says.

In the new season, the series’ central character, drug lord Aurelio Casillas is sick and needs a transplant to survive.

“This is the first time we see the vulnerability of the character. He has always been the strong guy, the one who kills, the one who gets the action going,” says Ángel Domenech, creative director, digital marketing.

Now Aurelio’s tyranny is easing due to what he senses is his approaching death, symbolized through La Catrina, “a very important character in Mexican culture,” Domenech says. “It provides a symbolic, graphic and conceptual power. This is why, the creative team used her as the common thread throughout the campaign,” he says.

The campaign was structured in three phases, beginning with the nightmares the leading character suffers. Graphic teasers (as above) featured the image of a skull, including the campaign’s slogan: “We were born to die.”

The campaign also included a series of conceptual and very short pre-teases of up to 12 seconds: these show shaky cuts of a stretcher wheel, a surgery room, and the quick appearance of La Catrina. Each teaser offers flashes of the horror through which Aurelio is living.

The second phase features 15- and 30-second spots that show Aurelio fully immersed in his nightmare: the seduction of La Catrina in his own bed, for example.

In all of the pieces, he is chased and cornered. His despair is translated into movement with close-up shots, making the viewer experience the same anguish. The team used hand cameras, including bodycams, steadycams and wide-angle lenses, in order to bring the viewer close to the action.

“We got close to horror without reaching it,” he continues. “In the US Hispanic market, we had never attempted this kind of filmmaking before, and because the series has an adult audience, we were able to get in there and explore it,” he concludes.

For the third phase, the team created 90-second trailers. All of the pieces have been released on-air, on social networks and on the series’ web site.

The creative team also developed the campaign’s look and feel based on La Calaca (the skull).

“We went through hundreds of pictures to develop the makeup that best suited Aurelio,” Domenech says. The show’s logo appears to be overlaid with smoke, which replaces the element of fire used in the previous season. Then, it symbolized the Aurelio who was leaving the underworld to conquer the world. Now, he faces returning from whence he came.

The team also designed “death cards” which have been shared frequently on Facebook, with more than 200,000 views per piece.

Artists Matías Bervejillo and Victoria Barreiro recreated the twelve most important deaths from the show as Tarot cards, with the skull image on the back. A final card was added to reach number 13, the symbolic number of death. The action was digitized and animated to bring each card to life, and the cards were released on social networks a few days prior to the premiere.

The thirteen cards also are part of one of the most outstanding physical extensions of the campaign: a kit which includes several gadgets, including a life-size skull and Converse sneakers with the image of La Calaca printed on them.

“We launched a limited series of 500 pairs to send to key influencers and we numbered them so that they really are collection shoes,” says Rodríguez.

As for social networks, “the most important campaign action in terms of cost and production has been the development of an interactive game,” Domenech says. Incorporating the overall campaign, a subjective camera invites the user to make decisions on Aurelio’s behalf: either to confront or to flee.

Finally, one of the major campaign goals was that the release date plays a main role, “something that we had never done before at Telemundo,” says Rodríguez.

Meanwhile, Aileen Angulo-Merciel, Telemundo senior vice president, marketing and creative, says this campaign “reflects the sustained effort to raise the standard of creativity and marketing in the US Hispanic market,” where “audiences are evolving and demanding more. It has been a very challenging journey, a journey full of fun and creative freedom.”

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

CREDITS:

Network: Telemundo

SVP, Marketing and Creative: Aileen Angulo-Merciel

Creative Director, Digital Marketing: Ángel Domenech

Creative Director, On-Air Promotions: Julio Cabello

VP, Marketing: Maria Isabel Figueroa

Manager, On-Air Promotions: Carlos Mantilla

Senior Producer, On-Air Promotions: Tatyana Santana

Senior Art Director: Ozzy Gonzalez

Lead Designer: Vivian Galainena

Senior Marketing Manager: María Aleandra Rodríguez

Executive Producer: Liliana Chavez

Production Company: Metro Productions

Editors: Gustavo Aviles (promos), Danilo Tancredi (digital assets, video game), Spencer Condon (2C Media, teasers)

Digital Assets Production, “death cards” creative direction: Martin Bavio, Green Power Media

Digital Assets Production: Martin Fontaina, Green Power Media

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